9.28.2010

CRITICAL EXPOSURE: Silent Auction Oct 21!

A Vision So Clear With A Sound So FaintPhotograph by Byron, 12th grade

"I put a photo of my brother on the keys of an open piano, and I took the picture. To me it represents what my brother stood for. My brother graduated, so it says “Graduation Picture 2006,” and it also captures the music side of him that is also in me. I feel like this piano in the background in the photo, along with the photograph, really represented my brother in a way that words can’t. I took this photo while I was at school in the auditorium. He graduated from Spingarn STAY, the same program I’m in. He graduated in 2006 before he got killed.

I’m going back to school because of my brother, actually. He got shot and before he got shot he graduated from high school. I made a promise to him that I was going to graduate from high school so I enrolled in the same program as him in 2006. But, later on that year, while I was in school, he got killed. So I dropped out of school, I lost my focus, I couldn’t really concentrate. And now, the 2008-2009 school year, I’m just getting back in here because I know he wanted me to finish school, and I made him a promise that I would finish school and walk across that same stage that he walked across. And I’m going to make sure that I fulfill my promise--my word is my bond." –Byron, 12th grade, Spingarn STAY Senior High School

ABOUT:Critical Exposureteaches youth to use the power of photography and their own voices to become effective advocates for school reform and social change.

DONATE: Give Cameras to Kids; train them in documentary photography and writing; encourage them to capture images that illustrate the realities of their lives; and show them how to use photographs and writing to tell their stories and advocate for improvements in their schools and communities. You can be part of the picture.Donate.

Having taught photography in public schools for 25 years, I am well aware of the limitations of equipment and materials that both the students and teachers have to deal with. I had to donate a photo to this worthy cause.